ECONOMIC COOPERATION ORGANIZATION Draft Annotated Agenda 5 th Meeting of ECO High Level Expert Group on Statistics (HLEG) (4-5 December 2012, Ankara, Turkey) The Secretariat of the Economic cooperation Organization (ECO) No. 1, Golbou Alley, Kamranieh, Tehran, I.R. Iran, P.O.Box No. 14155-6176 Tel: (+98-21) 22831733-4 or 22292066 Fax: (+98-21) 22 83 17 32 E-mail: registry@ecosecretariat.org Website: www.ecosecretarait.org
The 5 th ECO High Level Expert Group (HLEG) Meeting on Statistics 4-5 December 2012, Ankara, Turkey Draft Annotated Agenda 1. Inauguration of the Meeting A High Ranking Official of the Host Country will open the meeting and make inaugural statement. PERS Directorate will also make the opening statement. 2. Election of the Chairman According to the ECO Rules of Procedures, Head of Delegation of the Host Country will be elected to chair the meeting. 3. Adoption of the Draft Agenda The Secretariat circulated the Draft Agenda of the meeting vide its note No.PERS/5 th HLEGM/2012/1823 dated 6 November 2012. The meeting will adopt it with amendments, if any (Annex-I). 4. Appointment of the Drafting Committee An open-ended Drafting Committee will prepare draft Report of the 5 th HLEG Meeting on Statistics. 5. Report of the Secretariat on the follow up of the 4 th HLEGM The Secretariat will make a presentation on the follow ups of the 4 th HLEGM, held on 7-8 April 2011 in Islamabad, Pakistan. Report of the 4 th HLEGM on Statistics already has been forwarded to Member States (Annex-II). The Secretariat will brief the meeting regarding activities of the Secretariat in the field of Statistics and works done by PERS directorate for development of statistical cooperation in the region. 6. Country reports of delegates from ECO Member States Heads of delegation of each Member State will make their presentations/statements on the follow ups of the 4 th HLEGM, held on 7-8 April 2011 in Islamabad, Pakistan. In their country presentation, delegates are requested to focus on provision of their views/proposals/concept papers on implementation of regional statistical projects for improvement of statistical activities and cooperation with regards to specificities and statistical needs in the region. Proposals may incorporate new ideas regarding effective implementation of statistical capacity building programme for promotion of statistical proficiency and expertise based on the training needs of the ECO NSOs and through available training facilities from international and regional agencies to support the training programme. Promotion of capacity of the ECO database with regard to production of the reliable and comparable statistics and indicators in the priority areas of economic cooperation among ECO Member States and in specific 2
economic sectors could be considered by delegates as a need for expansion of statistical activities in the region and among ECO NSOs. 7. Mechanism of Development of Cooperation on Statistics in the Region (Development of ECOSTAT,... ) Following adoption of the ECO Framework of Cooperation and Plan of Action on Statistics by the 1 st Meeting of the Heads of ECO NSOs (28-29 January 2008, Tehran) and proposal of the Statistical Centre of Iran for establishment of the ECO Statistical Network (ECOSTAT) as a mechanism for implementation of the Plan, this network was launched by generous contribution of the of the SCI and was operated since February 2011. Since then, the ECOSTAT is being operated and by close cooperation between the Secretariat and the Statistical Centre of Iran is being updated. So far, seven Member States (Afghanistan, Azerbaijan, Iran, Kazakhstan, Pakistan, Tajikistan and Turkey) have nominated their focal points on ECOSTAT to the Secretariat for providing access to internal use. Nomination of focal points on ECOSTAT from the remaining countries is still awaited. The ECOSTAT in its first step aimed at collecting updated and timely data and statistics from ECO NSOs on annual basis. This objective is being achieved with continuous work of the Secretariat and with cooperation of the ECO NSOs on providing a data set of various socio-economic data and indicators for the period 2000-2011 which are available on the Network. Moreover, the Secretariat has made efforts to enrich the content of the Network by posting other useful information and documents related to statistical activities and events in the region to the Network. Hence, the ECOSTAT as a specialized statistical network enjoys great capacity to be utilized for promotion of statistical activities in the region. The meeting may discuss potentialities and possibilities on development of the ECOSTAT and delegates may provide their views/proposals on this issue with regard to statistical needs of the Member States. Moreover, any other proposal by delegates for implementation of other possible mechanism for development of statistical cooperation in region-wide is most welcomed. 8. Regional Harmonized Statistical Methodology Following the 3 rd HLEGM on Statistics (5-6 October 2010, Kabul) and agreement of the meeting for setting up the Committee on Regional Harmonized Statistical Methodology, the Secretariat requested ECO NSOs to nominate one senior statistician as their permanent representative to this Committee. Following the request of the Secretariat, seven Member States (Afghanistan, Azerbaijan, Iran, Kazakhstan, Pakistan, Tajikistan and Turkey) nominated their representatives to this Committee. To initiate the work of the Committee and based on the proposal of the Secretariat, the Statistical Institute for Asia and the Pacific (SIAP) responded positively to organize the ECO-SIAP joint training workshop on Harmonization of Statistical Methodology with collaboration of the UNESCAP Statistics Division for the ECO NSOs. This workshop firstly scheduled to be held within 26-30 November 2012 in Bangkok but it was postponed and will be re-scheduled for holding, possibly in early 2013. The main objective of this training workshop is to provide the participants with knowledge and expertise on harmonization of statistical 3
methodology with regard to develop a sustainable statistical system in the ECO region, in line with the international standards. This training workshop would be considered as the start point of the Committee to work for harmonization of statistical methodology in the region and the committee is expected to initiate its work programme through continuous work and holding regular meetings in the region, further to the training workshop. The meeting may propose views/comments/recommendation on improvement of the future work of the Committee for more effective achievement of their responsibilities. 9. Statistical Capacity Building Programme In line with capacity building programme of the Secretariat for ECO Member States in the area of projects, economic research and statistics, during 2012 the PERS Directorate coordinated for conducting the following four training workshops: 1. Training Workshop on Project Risk Management, conducted jointly by the ECO and the Islamic Research and Training Institute (IRTI) from the Islamic Development Bank Group for ECO Secretariat's staff involved in the ECO projects implementation on 4-5 March 2012 at the ECO Secretariat, Tehran 2. Training Workshop on Project Risk Management, conducted jointly by the ECO, the Islamic Research and Training Institute (IRTI) and the Statistical, Economic and Social Research and Training Centre for Islamic Countries (SESRIC) for ECO Member States from 28 to 31 March 2012 in Ankara. 3. Training Workshop on Implementation of the System of National Accounts 2008, conducted jointly by the ECO, the United Nations Statistics Division (UNSD) and the Statistical Centre of Iran for ECO National Statistical Offices from 14 to 17 October 2012 at the Statistical Research and Training Centre (SRTC) in Tehran. 4. Training Workshop on Harmonization of Statistical Methodology, organized jointly by the ECO, the Statistical Institute for Asia and the Pacific (SIAP) and the UNESCAP for ECO National Statistical Offices which will be re-scheduled for early 2013 in Bangkok. The Secretariat will provide a brief report on organizing and outcomes of the above-listed training workshop. The meeting may discuss on future plan of the Secretariat for implementation of statistical capacity building programme for development of knowledge and expertise of the ECO National Statistical Offices. 10. International Cooperation Regional and international organizations invited to meeting may make their statements or presentations on potential areas of joint cooperation with the Economic Cooperation Organization on development of statistics in the region. 4
Since the previous HLEG meeting, PERS Directorate has continued its efforts for seeking joint cooperation with regional and international organizations which were mainly resulted in implementation of the following achievements. ECO-FAO joint cooperation for implementation of Technical Cooperation Project (TCP) on Support for the implementation and development of the CountrySTAT Framework in the ECO countries resulted in signing the project document by two sides on 29 May 2012 at the ECO Secretariat. Following the signing of the project, the FAO assigned its CountrySTAT technical team who will be involved directly in the implementation of project activities. Later on, the first technical support mission to launch the project in Kabul was accomplished by FAO in late Agust 2012. SESRIC in continuation of its cooperation with the ECO on implementation of capacity building programme of the Secretariat participated in organizing the training workshop on Project Risk Management for ECO Member States by hosting this event in Ankara in March 2012. IDB and IRTI also made generous contribution to the above-mentioned training workshop in Ankara and as co-organizer of the workshop, provided their technical and financial assistance for successful conducting this training. UNSD also made its contribution to the organization through participating in organizing the training workshop on Implementation of the System of National Accounts 2008 for ECO National Statistical Offices. The Resource person from UNSD conducted this workshop during October 2012 in Tehran. SIAP (Statistical Institute for Asia and the Pacific) is one of the most potential international partners in the field of statistics which agreed with proposal of the Secretariat for organizing the training workshop on Harmonization of Statistical Methodology for ECO National Statistical Offices and will conduct this training course in collaboration with the UNESCAP in early 2013. PARIS21, affiliated to OECD, accepted invitation of the Secretariat to provide its proficiency to ECO NSOs by holding a session for presentation on "Design and Implementation of National Strategic Plan in Statistics" in the 4 th Meeting of the Heads of ECO NSOs in September 2012 but due to postponement of the meeting, it was deferred to future. ECO Secretariat also approached EuroStat, the World Bank, UIS (UNESCO Institute for Statistics) and UNU (United Nations University) for possible joint cooperation for implementation of capacity building programme of the Secretariat for its members. Other invited international organizations may provide their views and proposals regarding the joint work programme between ECO and their organizations. The participants may also present their views/comments/proposals on the matter. 5
11. Any Other Business The Meeting may raise and discuss any other issues under this agenda item. 12. Date and venue of the next meeting The Meeting may deicide on the date and venue of the next meeting. 13. Adoption of the Draft Report The draft report, prepared by the drafting Committee, is to be considered and adopted by the Meeting. 14. Vote of Thanks and Closing of the Meeting The Head of Delegations may wish to give a vote of thanks to the Chair for hosting the meeting and hospitality arrangements. 6
Annex-I Draft Agenda 5 th ECO High Level Expert Group Meting on Statistics (HLEGM) (4-5 December 2012, Ankara, Turkey) 1. Inauguration of the Meeting 2. Election of the Chairman 3. Adoption of the Draft Agenda 4. Appointment of the Drafting Committee 5. Report of the Secretariat on the follow up of the 4th HLEGM 6. Country reports of delegates from ECO Member States 7. Mechanism of Development of Cooperation on Statistics in the Region (Development of ECOSTAT,... ) 8. Regional Harmonized Statistical Methodology 9. Statistical Capacity Building Programme 10. International Cooperation 11. Any Other Business 12. Date and Venue of the next meeting 13. Adoption of the Report 14. Vote of thanks and closing of the meeting 7
Annex-II Report of the 4 th High Level Expert Group Meeting of the ECO National Statistical Offices (7-8 April 2011, Islamabad, Pakistan) 1. The 4 th High Level Expert Group (HLEG) Meeting of the ECO National Statistical Offices was held on 7-8 April, 2011 in Islamabad and hosted by Federal Bureau of Statistics of the Islamic Republic of Pakistan. The Meeting was attended by the delegations of the Islamic Republic of Afghanistan, the Republic of Azerbaijan, the Republic of Turkey and Islamic Republic of Pakistan (host). Representatives of the Islamic Republic of Iran, the Kyrgyz Republic and the Republic of Uzbekistan also attended the meeting, as well as the delegation from the ECO Secretariat and International Organizations such as PARIS21, FAO, IDB, GIZ, DFID. The list of the participants is attached as Annex-I. Agenda Item No.1 Inauguration of the Meeting 2. The Meeting was inaugurated by H.E. Mr. Asif Bajwa, Secretary, Statistics Division of the Islamic Republic of Pakistan. In his inaugural address, he welcomed the participants in Islamabad, noting the importance of the meeting and exchange of views and good experiences among ECO NSOs. He informed the meeting about the most recent activities of FBS with focus on conducting housing and population census of Pakistan which has already been started at its first phase. While inviting the ECO NSOs for field visits to share experience on conducting the census, he offered provision of local hospitality to the participants from ECO Member States. Also, he announced readiness of Pakistan FBS to offer its pool of expertise to act as the ECO Statistical Training Centre. It will enable to enhance Statistical Capacity Building in the ECO NSO and contribute to development of statistics in the region. 3. Mr. Altaf Asghar, the ECO Deputy Secretary General also delivered his opening statement and remarked regular holding of the High Level Expert Group Meeting on Statistics as willful manifestation of the ECO NSOs for improvement of statistical activities in the region. He noted the successful launching of the ECO Statistical Network (ECOSTAT) as an opportunity for all Member States to realize Plan of Action on Statistics. While mentioning provision of training facilities by Iran over past few years, he expressed hope that other ECO countries offer the training expertise for the region. He stressed on regular provision of timely and updated data by their Member States for compilation of the ECO publications and strengthening the ECO database as well. A copy of his statement is attached as Annex-II. Agenda Item No.2 Election of the Chairman 8
4. As per ECO Rules of Procedure, Mr. Arif Cheema, Director General of the Federal Bureau of Statistics of Pakistan and the Head of Delegation of the host country was elected as the Chairman of the Meeting. Agenda Item No.3 Adoption of the Agenda 5. The Meeting adopted its Agenda as proposed by the ECO Secretariat with minor amendments on inclusion of GIZ and DFID at Agenda Item No.10 (International Cooperation) as proposed by the delegation of Pakistan. A copy of the adopted Agenda is attached as Annex-III. Agenda Item No.4 Appointment of Drafting Committee 6. An open ended Drafting Committee was appointed to prepare the Draft Report of the meeting. Agenda Item No.5 Report of the Secretariat on the follow up of the 3 rd HLEGM 7. Under this Agenda Item, PERS Directorate briefed the participants on the follow ups of the 3rd HLEGM, held on 5-6 October 2010 in Kabul, Afghanistan. In particular, joint cooperation with SESRIC on Capacity Building Programme of the ECO NSOs was followed up. It was reminded that Turkey, Iran and Afghanistan have already provided their views and proposals on this issue and the remaining Member States were requested to follow up with their proposals at the earliest. It was also noted that establishment of the Committee on Regional Harmonized Statistical Methodology is awaited for nomination of one statistician from the remaining ECO NSOs. Agenda Item No.6 Country Reports of Delegates on the follow up of the 3 rd HLEGM 8. Under this Agenda Item, Heads of Delegation of the ECO Member State made their presentations/statements on the follow ups of the 3 rd HLEGM. 9. Afghanistan: Mr. Abdul Ghias, Director of Agricultural Product Accounts, Central Statistical Organization (CSO) of the Islamic Republic of Afghanistan made his presentation by deliberating on the national statistical system of Afghanistan. He noted the characteristics of the National Statistical Plan of Afghanistan and reviewed main activities of CSO in different statistical areas. He remarked the need for harmonization of statistical concepts, definitions and methodologies and recommended sharing of good practices and experience among ECO NSOs and creation of a unit within the PERS Directorate to look after harmonization issues. A copy of his presentation is attached as Annex-IV. 10. Azerbaijan: Mrs. Mery Amirova, Head of the Statistical Information Division, State Statistical Committee of the Republic of Azerbaijan made her statement stressing the importance of the HLEG Meeting. She pointed out the role of the social 9
statistics in the country statistical database and recommended that the Secretariat develop social statistics for the Member States in a number of items such as Millennium Development Goals (MDGs), including poverty, infant mortality. In line with holding the 8 th National Focal Points Meeting on Economic Research and Statistics which will be held on 21-22 April in Baku, she invited all Member States to actively participate in this meeting and make necessary coordination with the host country. 11. Pakistan: Mr. Munir Ahmed Aslam, Deputy Director General, Federal Bureau of Statistics of the Islamic Republic of Pakistan made his presentation by describing the statistical system of Pakistan. It was deliberated that Statistics Division of Pakistan which is accountable for the entire statistical system of Pakistan, embodies statistical authorities and controls three major statistical organizations of the country; Federal Bureau of Statistics (FBS), Population Census Organization (PCO) and Agricultural Census Organization (ECO). He made an account of statistical activities carried out to describe the functional profile of the constituents of the statistical system of Pakistan. A copy of his presentation is attached as Annex-V. 12. Turkey: Mr. Gurdal Gedik, Head of International Cooperation Group, Foreign Relation Department, Turkish Statistical Institute in his statement noted the need for reliable statistics in assisting policy makers in formulating sound economic policies. He informed the meeting about the National Statistical Law which strengthens coordination role of the TurkStat in the statistical system of Turkey. He also pointed out a number of major statistical activities of TurkStat at regional and international level. A copy of his statement is attached as Annex-VI. Agenda Item No.7 Development of ECO Statistical Network (ECOSTAT) 13. The 166 th CPR Meeting held on 23rd February 2011 welcomed official upload of the ECO Statistical Network (ECOSTAT), presented by the Representative of the Statistical Centre of Iran in the meeting. The Secretariat informed the Member States about this matter and requested them to explore ECOSTAT and provide their views and comments regarding the further upgrades of the Network. Before launching ECOSTAT, the Statistical Centre of Iran provided training to the Member States via the 1 st training Workshop on ECOSTAT from 28 November to 1 December 2010 in Tehran. The Secretariat had requested the Member States through a formal note verbale to nominate their Focal Points for ECOSTAT from the National Statistical Offices. Turkey has expressed its views that the establishment of ECOSTAT was successful and it will act as useful platform for exchange of data and information in the region. 14. Under this Agenda Item the Secretariat presented to the meeting the detailed content and functioning of the ECOSTAT to the meeting. In this presentation all the documents, data and statistics (Compendia and ECO Key Statistical Indicators), charts and diagrams, news and publications which are available in the network, were introduced to the Member States. The main part of the network (Login) which produces analytical statistical reports for the Member States, was also demonstrated to the delegates. In this connection, the Secretariat draw the attention of the meeting to 10
active and continued cooperation of the ECO NSOs in providing timely an updated data, information, news and comments to the Secretariat to be placed on the network. 15. The Secretariat requested the Member States to explore ECOSTAT and provide their views and suggestions on the development of the network, as stated in the official correspondence to the Member States. It was suggested by the delegation of Pakistan that all views and proposals of Member States on the development of the ECOSTAT could be forwarded to the Secretariat to be considered by the 3 rd Meeting of the ECO Heads of the NSOs, scheduled to be held on 24-25 May 2011 in Kabul. Agenda Item No.8 Regional Harmonized Statistical Methodology 16. Establishment of the Committee on Regional Harmonized Statistical Methodology was agreed by the 3 rd HLEGM on Statistics held on 5-6 October 2010 in Kabul which discussed modalities for working on a system of harmonized concepts, definitions, standards and methodologies among ECO NSOs. Following the meeting, the Secretariat requested the Member States to nominate their representative to this Committee. By the time, Turkey, Iran and Afghanistan have nominated their representatives for this Committee. The Meeting reiterated its request to the remaining Member States to nominate their representatives to the Committee by 10 th May 2011. 17. The Secretariat informed the meeting that positive response from Turkmenistan for hosting the 1 st Meeting of the Committee on Regional Harmonized Statistical Methodology in 2011 has been received. 18. The Meeting discussed the composition of the Committee with regard to participation of the representatives from International Organizations in the Committee. Pakistan proposed that this issue could be considered and discussed by the Member States prior to the 21 st RPC Meeting. Agenda Item No.9 Comprehensive Capacity Building Programme of the ECO National Statistical Offices 19. The Draft Overview of the Process of Coordination by NSOs in the ECO Member States which was prepared by the Secretariat, was discussed in the 3 rd HLEG Meeting on Statistics and considered by the Member States as a Comprehensive Capacity Building Strategy for ECO. Following the said meeting, the Secretariat requested National Statistical Offices of the ECO region, to provide their relevant views and proposals on ECO Comprehensive Capacity Building Programme on Statistics. The Secretariat has confirmed receipt of views and proposals from the Republic of Turkey, the Islamic Republic of Iran and the Islamic Republic of Afghanistan. 20. The Republic of Turkey stated that each member country needs an individual model of the Statistical Capacity Building (SCB). It was suggested that national policy makers of each country formulate their own action plan for SCB in cooperation with their national institutions. After each Member State develops its national statistical strategy for SCB, ECO Secretariat or a committee should design and develop ECO's Comprehensive Capacity Building Strategy based on the NSDS. 11
Meanwhile, Turkey announced its readiness to send its experts of TurkStat for consultancy services to ECO member countries in cooperation with SESRIC in view with its work programme, if so desired by Member States. 21. Iran described its statistical training needs and requested for organizing training workshops on 'SNA 2008' and 'indices of industrial production' in collaboration with UNSD experts and agreed on the training courses on 'quarterly national accounts', 'real GDP estimation' and 'environment statistics' proposed by SESRIC to be organized for the ECO region during 2011 in Kazakhstan and Tajikistan. Also, Iran proposed to hold training courses in the field of statistical analysis and advanced SAS programming in cooperation with Statistical Research and Training Centre for ECO countries. 22. Afghanistan determined its statistical training needs with special interest on computer science and statistical analysis and declared its agreement with 'Draft Overview on Coordination on Statistical Capacity Building among ECO National Statistical Offices' prepared by the Secretariat. 23. The Meeting considered the views of the Member States and urged the remaining Member States expedite their views and comments by 10 th May 2011. Agenda Item No.10 International Cooperation 24. The Regional and international organizations made their statements/presentations under this agenda item. In recent years, PERS Directorate has actively been seeking joint cooperation with regional and international organizations. 25. IDB: Mr. Abu Camara, Statistician from Data Resources and Statistics Department of Islamic Development Bank briefed the meeting about the joint statistical cooperation with the members of IDB. He cited the IDB-STATCAP initiative setup to assist IDB member countries with statistical capacity. Through the OIC-SWG, IDB would like to reach out to ECO member countries database. He informed the participant that the Bank has received the request of the ECO for technical assistance and is currently studying the request and that it will provide its feedback to ECO Secretariat soon. 26. GIZ: Bernd Struck, Principal Advisor of Germany International Cooperation Organization informed the meeting about the recent activities of the organization for development of statistics. He briefly explained the joint project of GIZ with Federal Bureau of Statistics of Pakistan on implementation of the System of National Accounts (SNA 2008) and informed the meeting on holding E-Learning Course in National Accounts, scheduled to be held in July 2011 in Islamabad. He invited ECO NSOs for participating in this course and offered provision of local hospitality to participants of this course from ECO Member States. 27. PARIS21, in its first participation in the ECO events, made a presentation in the meeting. Mr. Jon Hall representative of PARIS21 demonstrated the main functions and activities of PARIS21. In his presentation, he focused on National Strategy for 12
Development of Statistics (NSDS) and deliberated on the main principles and phases of this programme. Also, he expressed readiness of PARIS21 to work with ECO Member States. The Secretariat questioned about a modality of cooperation between PARIS21 and ECO Secretariat. It was responded that PARIS21 is eager to work on joint training programme and provision of the assistance to the ECO member countries. The meeting welcomed presentation made by PARIS21 and expressed hope for beneficiary joint programme between the two organizations. A copy of PARIS21 is attached as Annex-VII. 28. The next presentation was made by Ms. Julia Stone, FAO representative. She introduced the CountrySTAT programme which is being run by the FAO in a number of member countries. She explained link between Global Strategy and CountrySTAT and deliberated on the main components, priority areas, expected results and usefulness of this programme for the beneficiary countries. She was questioned by Afghanistan for an early start of the FAO-ECO Technical Cooperation Project (TCP) with Afghanistan as a pilot country. She noted that this issue is being followed up as the outcome of the 3 rd HLEGM in Kabul, 2010. FAO has responded that the work is in progress and the FAO will inform about outcomes in due time. The Secretariat reminded the meeting that the approval of FAO-ECO TCP was obtained by the aforementioned meeting and was confirmed by FAO Headquarters. A copy of FAO presentation is attached as Annex-VIII. Agenda Item No.11 Any Other Business 29. Under this Agenda Item, the Secretariat made the following reminders to the Meeting: Regarding holding the 8 th NFPM on Economic Research and Statistics which is scheduled to be held on 21-22 April 2011 in Baku, Member States were requested to make appropriate preparation for taking part in the meeting. In view of compilation of ECO Annual Economic Report 2010, Member States were reminded to provide the requested inputs for the Report. Nomination for the Committee on Regional Harmonized Statistical Methodology is still awaited by Member States (excluding Turkey, Iran and Afghanistan). The remaining Member States were requested to take action on this issue. In connection with the 3 rd MHNSO to be held on 24-25 May 2011 in Kabul, Member States were requested to make necessary arrangement for participation in that meeting and providing the views and proposal regarding the Draft Agenda of the meeting. Agenda Item No.12 Date and Venue of the next meeting 13
30. The Secretariat will inform the Member States about date and venue of the next meeting in further consultation with the ECO NSOs. Agenda Item No.13 Adoption of the Report 31. Under this Agenda Item, the Meeting unanimously adopted its report prepared by the Drafting Committee. Agenda Item No.14 Vote of thanks and closing of the meeting 32. The Head of Delegation of Turkey, on behalf of the Member States expressed thanks to the Government of the Islamic Republic of Pakistan and Federal Bureau of Statistics and GIZ for warm hospitality extended to the Delegations of ECO Member States during the meeting. He also thanked the Secretariat for organizing this meeting. The ECO Deputy Secretary General appreciated Mr. Arif Cheema, staff of the Federal Bureau of Statistics and GIZ for excellent arrangements and hospitality of the Meeting. Representatives from PARIS21, FAO and IDB also expressed their appreciation to the organizers of the meeting. 32. The Chairman of the meeting announced the closing of the meeting. 14
P Workshop P Regional P Regional P FAO P Regional Annex-III Calendar of Events of PROJECTS, ECONOMIC RESEARCH AND STATISTICS for 2012-2013 Approved by the 22 nd Regional Planning Council No. Event/Activity Venue Date 1. Training Workshop on "Project Risk Held in Tehran, 4-5 March 2012 Management" (for ECO staff) Secretariat 2. Training Workshop on "Project Risk Held in Ankara, 28-31 March 2012 Management" (for ECO member states) Turkey 3. 5 th ECO High Level Expert Group Meeting Ankara, Turkey November 2012 (HLEG) on Statistics 4. 4 th Meeting of the Heads of ECO National Statistical Offices (MHNSO) Islamabad, Pakistan 26-27 September, 2012 5. 2 nd Meeting of ECO Permanent Steering Committee for Economic Research 6. 1 st Meeting of ECO Economic Journal Editorial Board 7. First Meeting of ECO Committee on Regional Harmonized Statistical Methodology 8. st 1P on Indicator-based Monitoring of Regional Integration in the framework of the ECO-UNU Regional Programme on Statistical Capacity Building 9. st 1P Workshop on Inter-institutional Capacity Building in ECO and EU regions (with EuroStat) 10. ECO-UIS Joint Capacity Building Training Workshop on R&D and Innovation Statistics nd Baku, Azerbaijan 7 November 2012 Baku, Azerbaijan 8 November 2012 Turkmenistan 2012 Belgium 25-26 October 2012 Tbd 2012/13 Tbd 18-20 September 11. 2P Training Workshop on Informal Tbd 2012 Sector Statistics (with UNESCAP) 12. st 1P Workshop on Inter-Institutional Tbd 2012 Cooperation on Statistics (with World Bank) 13. The Training Workshop on the SNA for Tehran, Iran 14-17 October ECO countries in the framework of Inter- 2012 Institutional Cooperation between ECO and UNSD 14. st 1P Regional Training Course on Pakistan 2012 CountryStat Programme 15. ECO-SIAP Joint Training Course on Tbd 2012-2013 Harmonization of Regional Statistical Methodology 16. Project Fund Raising Event Tbd 2013 15